Can Money Buy Happiness? Income and Multidimensional Life Satisfaction in Brunei Darussalam

This paper examines the nexus of income and multidimensional life satisfaction (LS) in the oil- and gas-rich Belait district of Brunei Darussalam. Using a random sample of 1,000 Belait residents and principal component factor analysis to sort 11 domains-of-life satisfaction into three uncorrelated LS spheres–LS with materialist life (job, stress, and income); LS with post-materialist life (family, spirituality, neighbors, and community activities); and LS with public life (health, neighborhood facility, feeling safe at home, and quality of living environment)—we discover the following. First, positive income effects on LS with materialist life sphere are evidenced from lower-middle- to high-income bands. Second, a positive income effect on LS with post-materialist life sphere is only found in the high-income band. Income does not relate to LS with public life sphere. These findings are robust to using each domains-of-life satisfaction and treating scores on domain satisfaction as ordinal and cardinal measures.